Alexia: :D You're back!
Me: Yeah ^-^
Alexia: Wow :D
Me: U-uh huh ^-^'
Alexia: ...
Me: ^-^...
Alexia: IT ONLY TOOK YOU ELEVEN MONTHS!
Me: ;-; Stop rubbing it in
Alexia: Just start the chapter already -_-
[OCTOBER FOURTH- Grimmjow POV]
Time was passing by way too slowly.
Since Alexia had been gone for two days now, I had no one to torment or tease. I spent my time lounging around, spending some of my time with Auria or sparring with the other arrancar living around me. A lot of them were too weak for me. Most of the time I ended up killing my opponent, and sometimes I just beat them up pretty badly. There were only one or two arrancars that were on par or stronger than me. It pissed me off.
Auria had asked if I wanted to fight her, but since doing something like that brought back memories of how I'd, well…killed her, I preferred not to. She understood, but asked for training. "The war's coming up soon, and I have a feeling…even if Aizen uses only the Espada, I want to fight alongside you."
"You're forgetting I'm not part of that privileged group," I'd scoffed.
"I also have a feeling you will be," she'd smiled. "Call it a woman's intuition."
"That's really cheesy."
"I know."
And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like it was true. Call it the calm before the storm or whatever the hell it was, things weren't supposed to be this silent and peaceful in a place like this. There had been more meetings lately, too. Every day consisted of a meeting or two, eating the crappy excuse for food they gave us (if I was feeling up to it), sleeping, fighting, and spending time with Auria. She was acting strangely recently, too; or maybe I'd spent too much time avoiding her to know—she was acting out of character, leaving abruptly and just acting nervously. It didn't happen often but it still struck me as odd. Sometimes I ended up sleeping with her and she wouldn't be there in the morning, or she'd come sleep in my room and disappear without me noticing. Today, though, she hadn't.
"…Hey," I muttered, leaning over her as I shook her a bit. This time she'd stayed in bed, snuggled up in a fetal position with her back to me and snoring softly. "Wake up."
"Not going to bother to wake me up with a kiss?" she sighed and turned to face me, smiling a little.
"This isn't a cheesy romance movie," I gave an amused huff.
"Yeah, you aren't the type to do those kinds of things," she yawned and shifted, sitting up and stretching her arms. "I don't think that suits you, either."
I hummed in agreement and laid back, starting to drift off again. It'd been a few weeks since I'd gone to the World of the Living but I was already getting bored of waking up to the same damn place everywhere I looked.
"Do you think Alexia and Ulquiorra are going to be back today?" she suddenly asked me and I froze.
"…They were gone?"
She reached out and played around with a few strands of my hair. "That's not nice."
"I barely noticed they were gone," I rolled my eyes, shrugging.
"I miss Alexia," she smiled. "We've been training together a lot lately."
"Have you found anything out?" I asked her.
"There's not anything really outstanding about her abilities," she started, her tone of voice thoughtful. "I haven't seen anything that makes her inhuman…"
"Well, she's obviously inhuman in some way or she would have died the moment she got here," I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "I've been thinking that—"
"Maybe not!" Auria turned to face me, her face showing how much she was willing to disagree with every pessimistic comment I made. Rolling my eyes, I sat up and poked her between her eyes, making her narrow her eyes and swat my hand away. "You never know, Grimmjow."
"She isn't a freak of nature," I scoffed. "There's some sort of explanation for her being here that makes sense."
"Maybe there isn't, and you're just really lucky." I sighed as she laid her head on my shoulder, taking a deep breath.
"Or I'm hallucinating."
"You're not."
"Prove it to me."
"What would you do if I was just an illusion?" Her question was random and I didn't know how to answer at first, mostly because I'd never had a reason to think like that.
"I know you're not an illusion."
"But if I was?"
"Auria," I warned.
"Grimmjow," she countered, lifting her head to look me in the eyes, and maybe even my inexistent soul.
"I don't know," I sighed. "I think I'd be sad."
She sweatdropped. "You…think?"
"Just messing with you," I huffed in amusement. She playfully pouted and punched my shoulder. "I guess…I'd probably…"
"…"
"I don't know," I sighed exasperatedly. "Why the hell are you even asking me a question like this?"
"Curiosity, mostly," she deadpanned. "It was just a thought that popped up, and I wanted an answer, so I asked."
"You need to just keep those thoughts to yourself." Smirking, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders from behind, putting my hands over her mouth. Her laugh was muffled as she tried to get my hands off. After a minute or two of struggling she finally loosened up and I let go of her. As a dramatic effect, she breathed in deeply, falling back against me as she exhaled. After calming down a bit more she turned her head, glaring at me.
"I couldn't breathe," she complained, reaching up and tugging on a strand of my hair.
"Ever heard of breathing through your nose?" I scoffed and pinched her nostrils shut this time. My hold wasn't so tight so it was easy for her to pull away this time.
"Shut up," she crossed her arms.
"Someone's being feisty."
"That was uncomfortable," she stated and sat up.
"Well damn, do you want a kiss to make up or something?" I rolled my eyes and to my surprise she nodded. "I was just joking."
"You haven't really kissed me, but I remember in the past you almost had an obsession with it," she chuckled.
"Well, I guess that doesn't really matter anymore, now that I can spend who-knows-how-many years with you. There's nothing for me to rush for."
"Either way…don't you miss the feeling?" she tilted her head, leaning in a bit.
"Oi, just tell me you want me to kiss you," I flicked her forehead. "You're making it too damn hard on yourself."
"I just find that being close to you feels nice and warm," she smiled genuinely and I found myself kind of…frozen. She had that kind of effect on me sometimes. Sometimes. Un(?)fortunately, this was one of those times.
"Oh…yeah," I murmured.
I expected her to make some sort of comeback about how a 'big, buff guy' like me was getting embarrassed, but her mind seemed to be somewhere else for a few moments and I found myself staring, wanting her to say something, anything.
"You okay?" I finally said after what seemed like an eternity.
"Hm…? Oh, I was just thinking," she smiled slightly and leaned away.
"About?"
"The war's coming up pretty soon. It's just…I'm not sure. It feels strange."
"Strange?"
"When you imagine war, or what comes before it, don't you usually imagine an army of twenty thousand training hard and polishing their weapons, mounting horses, making strategies and all of those kinds of things?"
"It isn't the medieval times, Auria."
"I'm just setting an example," she glared halfheartedly. "Aizen…"
"Don't mention him," I sighed. "Puts a damper on my mood, and I just woke up. Don't ruin it."
Nodding slightly, she seemed to drift off in her own thoughts yet again and I yawned, lazily getting out of bed. Time to start another boring day. I should've gone to the World of the Living again whenever I'd had the chance. If Auria was right, things would probably get busy, and the minor arrancars would be involved, too.
"…I want to spar."
"Huh?" I turned my head towards Auria. I'm just imagining things. She couldn't have said that.
"Fight me. It's about time we put the past behind us and moved on completely, right?" Standing, she averted her gaze and smoothed out her clothes, walking to my dresser and grabbing her sword.
"…Auria, if—"
"I'm ready," she turned to me and I saw something different in her eyes, something I'd never really seen before. Conviction? Maybe. But it was a little different, and I couldn't place my finger on it. There wasn't much purpose to wondering what she was thinking, though.
"You sure?" I raised an eyebrow, getting my sword as well and walking out the door. Breakfast would be skipped today; it was a habit to not eat it anymore.
Following me, she stated, "Well, since you're no longer an espada, you're on the same level as me, right?"
"Thanks for rubbing it in."
"What I mean to say is, you're not going to put me in danger by fighting with you." Tilting her head, she closed my door and walked alongside me. I had no real destination in mind, and she probably knew that but was glad to just follow me anywhere I went.
"…Fine," I muttered, sighing and running a hand through hair I hadn't bothered to fix when I got up. "I'll fight you."
Contrary to what I thought she would do, she was a bit quiet but hummed slightly and nodded, as if she was approving of my decision. I sweatdropped. What would you have done if I refused?
Since I was going through with this, apparently, I decided to head to the weapons room. We walked in complete silence and, honestly, I didn't feel like starting a conversation. Was I really going to spar with the person I'd killed before? She knew about my aspect of death, destruction. Once I was too far into the match, I'd probably lose account of who she was and just dedicate myself to destroying whatever was around me that could breathe and bleed.
Am I really going through with this?
That question should've been asked a long time ago, because now we were at the weapons room and it was too late to back out. I'd look like a dumbass. 'Hey, guess what, I agreed to this at first but I realized I'm probably going to kill you in the process so why don't we call this a day and be over with it?' That was definitely what I should've told her. Yeah, right.
She immediately walked in and stood on one side of the room as I opened the door to the weapons room. Both of us still silent, I went over to the other side and got in a stance that didn't feel too right. Unfortunately for me, I made eye contact with her just as we were about to start.
What the hell is with that look?
I didn't have time to think about it. She started.
Right from the start, I was on the defensive side. Her first strike was easily parried and I tried to swing at her; she dodged, and I wasn't quick enough. My "thing", I guess you could say, was making the most amount of damage in strength, but she wasn't a good matchup since I'd seen how fast and deceiving she could be when fighting. She went all out against me, striking from several different places and blocking any strikes I sent her way. I was so out of it at one point I almost admired her skills, wondering how she could fight this well and still be one of those arrancars Aizen barely paid attention to.
Oh, right, I have the power of one of those arrancars now. No wonder she feels strong. The thought pissed me off a bit and I started to fight with a little less hesitation than before.
She ducked as I swung my blade; using my momentum from the swing, I flipped behind her, taking a hold of her arm. Instinctively, a bala formed on my other hand. Unfortunately, she brought out her shorter blade and swung, making me lean back to dodge. The charge of the bala surpassed its peak, making it basically as strong as a good punch. Tch. The bala's charge slipped from my fingers and I put some distance between us now that I was on the defensive yet again. I hadn't put much effort into fights lately. If you can even call them fights. This was different; she was a challenge, not just another arrancar.
The thought was so sudden to me that I grinned.
She stopped for a second, raising an eyebrow in question. "Um…"
"Hey," I straightened up and got back into my stance, still grinning. This time, I felt tense and tight, ready to bound into action at a moment's notice. A tight knot in my chest was heating up, wanting to burst. This was the kind of feeling I wanted from fights.
My grin widened. "Mind if I go all out?"
Her eyes widened slightly, probably surprised that I was starting to warm up to the idea of fighting her. It didn't last long, though, since she quickly nodded with a moment's notice and got into position. I glanced down at Pantera and my grin shifted into a slight smirk, before I looked back up at her. I wouldn't know until later, but my eyes had darkened and trained on Auria like a predator focusing in on prey.
I moved forward.
Everything was a bit of a blur. There was silence besides the noise of swords clanging and Auria and I moving around. We didn't talk to each other, didn't meet each other's eyes. Vital points, pressure points, weak spots, and open flanks were all my eyes could register. I observed the way she used her feet and the space between her arms, the form she kept herself in. Somehow, my eyes kept up with her pace.
Red. It was on my arms, and sword. I took the opportunity to look at her face after several minutes of having focused only on what she was doing. Her face had a few cuts; part of her hair was uneven and jagged. A small gash was on her collarbone as well. Under normal circumstances, I should have been worried.
Instead, I felt a large rush of adrenaline and grinned, my pace and movements becoming stronger and quicker. She was still faster than I was, though, and she seemed focused on solely getting one task done. Her expression had changed. Her eyebrows were furrowed slightly, and her movements weren't as smooth and fluent as before.
"Grimmjow…," she tried calling out to me, but seemed out of breath. Her free arm was outstreched to me, and she was starting to make me as confused as she looked. "W-wait…!"
I swung, and she got a hold of my wrist. "Grimmjow!" Although my body instinctively wanted to move, I forced myself to stop and think instead of just act. My struggle against her ceased, and soon she was holding a limp wrist.
"…I was really into it this time," I sighed a bit and raised an eyebrow at her. "What's wrong? Did I give you too many scratches?" I smirked.
"You haven't noticed?" she glared halfheartedly, but her question was prodding at me wholeheartedly.
"Noticed what? You know I get caught up in good fights."
"They're back," she said, her confused expression turning into one of excitement.
"…Who?"
"Who else?" She glared wholeheartedly this time, making me huff in amusement and ruffle her hair.
"Alexia and Ulquiorra, right?" I said after a few moments, sheathing Pantera as she did the same.
"Yeah, but…" Once again, her eyebrows furrowed and she looked over my shoulder, at the door of the weapons room. "Something's different. I can't figure out what, though."
"Different?" I echoed, raising an eyebrow and getting a towel laying in the room, messily cleaning up the bloodstains on my arms.
"Focus in on their spiritual pressure. Ulquiorra's a little strange, but it's not too different. Alexia…"
"Alexia?"
"She's the one that feels strange…," her voice turned into a murmur. "We should probably go see her as soon as possible. Something might have happened between them." I tensed up as she said that last part.
Of course, she noticed.
"Oh?" It was her turn to smirk at me. "Are your protective brotherly instincts kicking in?"
"Shut the hell up," I muttered, throwing the slightly bloodied towel at her, which she promptly dodged and laughed a bit.
"I doubt anything like that happened," remarked Auria, looking at me with with eyes filled to the brim with amusement. She always seemed to like teasing me whenever I felt the least bit protective or possessive.
"It better not have, or I'll kill them both myself," I huffed, deciding not to go against these feelings. I wasn't protective too often, but a lot of things had happened lately that made me change without my even knowing it. I didn't think much of it, but sometimes I wondered what would have happened if all this hadn't happened; Alexia suddenly appearing, recognizing Auria, and everything else Alexia had revealed to me. Maybe I would have been better off not knowing, in some ways.
While I'd been stuck in my thoughts, Auria had already cleaned up the room and herself. A few bandages were on her face and a small amount of gauze was wrapped around one of her wrists. When she caught me looking at her, though, she simply smiled a bit and offered a clean, wet towel for me. Taking it, I silently cleaned myself up properly while staring at her as she put one last bandage over the spot on her collarbone that had been bleeding. Looking up, she caught me looking and her face reddened slightly.
"What? I'm just cleaning up the mess you made."
"I don't even remember giving you that cut," I muttered, sighing a bit. "I'm glad you stopped me when you did."
"I don't think you would've done anything over-the-top."
"You obviously don't know me that well when I'm fighting." Unfortunately, she didn't answer that. After several minutes, we left the weapons room and headed toward Alexia's room. Now that I wasn't in the heat of a fight that I hadn't been able to experience for some time now, I focused on what Auria had said before. Feels different, huh… She was partially right. Alexia's spiritual pressure (if you were even skilled enough to sense it) was different than usual, and so was Ulquiorra's, to an extent. Although it didn't necessarily feel different in a bad sense, I still wanted to check out what was going on. Maybe…
Alright, so maybe I was slightly protective. I was her brother, after all. It's not like I couldn't care at all.
"Grimmjow…," Auria spoke out for the first time since we'd left the weapons room, and I immediately turned to her. "When we get there, can you let me talk to her first?"
Her request seemed slightly strange to me. What did it matter who was first to speak to her? "Um…okay?"
"Sorry, it's just that…I have a weird feeling."
"Is it your 'woman's intuition' shit again? That's wrong ninety percent of the time, you realize that?"
"Grimmjow, I only mentioned that once."
"Whatever," I huffed and smirked slightly.
"I'm not going to deny that I find it easier to communicate with a woman than a man, though," she sighed softly, one of her hands comfortably resting on the handle of her sword. "Maybe the same thing goes for her. If there's something bothering her, it might be better for me to speak with her first."
"Sure," I shrugged, reaching for her free hand and holding it loosely. One of the things I found relieving was that she didn't usually question it when I showed affection. Anyone else would've been all over me and teasing me to no end, annoying the hell out of me. But she just smiled and held my hand as well. Doing this kind of stuff just came naturally for us.
In a couple of minutes, we were in front of Alexia's room. Anyone would assume that there would be some sort of noise coming from it, but surprisingly enough, it almost sounded as if they'd never come back. If not for their spiritual pressure, I would have assumed that. The situation was slightly unsettling, and I turned to Auria and raised an eyebrow. She also noticed the silence.
"After you," I muttered, opening the door. For some reason, I had a bad feeling about this. Rolling her eyes at my gentlemanly behavior, Auria casually walked in with a cautious stance. Before I had a chance to go in, or Auria could warn me, a flash of black and white went out the door.
…Huh?
"That was…," Auria started, but I didn't need her to finish in order to know who had just went out of the room nearly running. Meeting Auria's gaze and sharing an agreement mentally, she closed the door behind her and I went off after the person who'd left the room. What's he in such a hurry for?
Although it should have been easy, find Ulquiorra actually took me longer than I thought possible. The span of his spiritual pressure was obvious to me, and other arrancars around us could probably sense it as well without wanting to. For some reason, it had a larger presence than it should have had. After several minutes of wrong turns and dead ends, I gave up and headed to his room. As if he'd been there all along, I opened the door and found him on his bed, sitting calmly but looking down at his hands. The longer I looked, the more things I noticed; the slight sheen of sweat, the way he was trying not to breathe raggedly, his hands shaking slightly, the open bottle of pills on his nightstand.
"…Happened again, huh?" I said after an eternity of silence, closing the door behind me. Of course, he didn't bother to answer. Then again, I wasn't sure if that was because he was ignoring me or he physically couldn't answer this time.
"…"
"…Why'd it happen?"
"…"
"…Oi. You're pissing me off."
"…" After several long moments of unnecessary silence, he finally lifted his head slightly. He didn't seem to be struggling that much anymore, but he obviously wasn't in great shape. He hadn't even bothered to try and remove himself from his marioneta yet. "…Grimmjow."
"What? You should be grateful I'm not feeling impatient right now."
"…You should speak to Alexia."
I raised an eyebrow at him as he said that. Even his tone of voice was out of place, as if he and Alexia had gone running back from the World of the Living. "Did you do something to her?"
He shook his head a bit, inhaling before straightening his posture. The usual look on his face was back. "…She will be able to tell you what's going on."
"You were with her the entire time," I rolled my eyes. "You should be able to tell me, too." But it looked like he wasn't going to anytime soon; whatever was going on, it seemed to concern Alexia mainly.
"…"
"Alright," I sighed, "I'm going." I didn't bother to say anything else, leaving the room and going back to Alexia's room. Prick, I thought, making me chase him down and then telling me to go back…
I saw Auria in the distance as I got closer to Alexia's room. Unfortunately, she now looked like she had the same mindset as Ulquiorra. Her face was slightly slack, as if trying to swallow something that was at the back of her throat and nearly impossible to pass down.
"Auria?"
"Oh…Grimmjow." She smiled a bit, but it obviously wasn't convincing me that things were alright. "She's in her room right now."
"Did you talk to her?" I asked, even though the answer seemed obvious. Auria nodded a bit.
"It's…you have to hear it from her," she decided not to tell me, stepping away from the door so that I could go inside the room.
I walked up to the door, putting my hand on the knob, but turned to Auria before I opened the door. "…How bad is it?"
She only shook her head a bit, beckoning me to go inside and find out for myself by nodding towards the door. She's exaggerating, I sighed before opening the door and walking inside, closing the door behind me. Alexia was on the edge of her bed, and creepily enough was sitting in a similar way I'd found Ulquiorra sitting; hands in her lap, staring down at her hands like there was a curse written on it.
"…Alexia."
She jolted slightly even though I hadn't bothered to be quiet when entering the room. Looking up, her gaze seemed to wander the room before finally settling on me. A small smile came onto her face, but it didn't look genuine. "It feels like a while since I've seen you, Grimmjow."
"Don't give me that crap," I scoffed and walked over to her, sitting at her side. Her fingers were weaving and interlocking with each other, a habit I didn't know she had (maybe it wasn't even a habit). "What happened? Did Ulquiorra do something to you?"
She shook her head slowly. That smile on her face was still there as she answered, murmuring. "I…I discovered something."
"Discovered something?" I raised an eyebrow at her choice of words.
"…Yeah."
"Are you going to tell me what that might be?"
"Grimmjow…"
"You told me you found something out, now tell me," I snapped back. I hated when people did stuff like that, telling you only partially about something and then deciding to leave it hanging in the air.
"…I'm not really eager about telling you."
"I've noticed. Anyways, it's too late. Just tell me already."
"Do you…" Her hands gradually stopped moving. "Do you remember the family grave?"
I raised an eyebrow. Of course I remembered; that place freaked me out. I hadn't been able to understand why the hell we'd want our dead relatives a few yards away from our backyard. Whenever I would go into the backyard, I wouldn't get close. I was never fond of the whole taking-care-of-your-ancestors thing. They were dead. It's not like they had to be taken care of. It was harsh to think that, sure, but those were my honest thoughts.
"Yeah. I remember."
"…Ulquiorra found it this morning." She was biting her bottom lip slightly with a weird expression, as if she was trying to remember how to talk.
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked, tilting my head. "It's not like he would care."
Her shoulders stiffened a bit.
"Alexia?"
"It's not the grave itself," she shook her head slightly. "You know how on gravestones they show both the year the person was born and died?"
"I know what a gravestone looks like." She was stalling. "Alexia, this'll go a lot easier once you just tell me."
"…One of the gravestones…it had my name."
"Yeah…I remember they usually had the gravestones there ready for whenever you died. Enthusiastic. They'd engrave your year of death afterwords, right?"
"…Yeah."
"Alexia?" An idea was starting to form in my mind, but I didn't like it.
"…It had this year engraved on it," strands of her hair fell towards the front of her face, partially shielding it from view. "This year…what year is it?"
"…It's 2022, right?" I rubbed the back of my neck. I wasn't good with dates, since there wasn't a reason I should've kept track of them.
"…Huh?"
"I'm pretty sure that's the year," I said. If possible, her tone sounded even more edgy.
"Are you sure?" Her question was a bit rushed.
"Don't ask me if you're not going to believe me," I sighed.
"It's not 2012?"
"No…I'm nearly one hundred percent sure it's not. Why are you asking anyways?"
Her silence was my answer.
"…Shit. Alexia, you're kidding, right?"
"That was the year engraved on it," she said matter-of-factly, her voice wavering a bit. "From 1993 to 2012."
I still couldn't completely process it. If that's what her gravestone said, and the year now was 2022…
"I'm…"
"Alexia," I put a hand on her shoulder and shook her a bit. She didn't react. "Just try not to think about it."
"Try not to think about it?" She turned her head to face me, a shaking hand pushing back her hair so I could see her face. Her eyes looked like they were desperately looking for something. I couldn't blame her. "Grimmjow, I'm…I'm…"
"You don't have to say it," I spoke up, sighing softly.
"…Dead."
"…"
"I think it'd be worse if I didn't say it," she exhaled. "Guess that saying it just makes it that much more real."
"You barely found out this morning. Don't push yourself."
"…What am I supposed to do?" she murmured, averting her gaze to the ground again. "This…this barely answers anything I've been wondering about since I got here. Shouldn't I be in Soul Society? Why amn't I there? And shouldn't I have grown a chain from my chest? And even if they did perform Konso on me, why did I end up here? And—"
I put my hand over her mouth, sighing. She was starting to make me anxious. Her gaze shifted over to me and I interpreted a halfhearted glare from it. That was slightly comforting; she wasn't completely wallowing in despair.
"Ulquiorra saw too, right?"
She nodded a bit. After a few moments I deemed it safe enough to take off my hand from her mouth. "He…I don't know. He just reacted weirdly to seeing it."
"He almost turned when you guys came back."
"What?" Her voice was urgent. "Is he okay?"
"Says the dead girl," I huffed.
"…"
"Sorry."
"Just answer my question."
"He looked like he'd gotten over it," I shrugged. "It looks like he's more worried about you than himself."
"…Really?"
"Eh. He only mentioned your name once, so I guess not."
I felt a weak punch directed at my shoulder and smirked at Alexia. When she saw my expression, she was still for a while. Then, her own expression relaxed slightly.
"Thanks, Grimmjow…"
"No problem."
"I mean it. I just…I need some time to think about this."
I nodded a bit. "Don't take too long. Also…"
"Yeah…?"
"What's with you and Ulquiorra?"
She jolted. "Nothing much."
"Uh-huh."
"…"
"What'd he do to you?"
"I said, it's nothing," she said again with even less conviction than before, meeting my eyes. As soon as she saw the look I was giving her, her voice faltered and she sighed. "He, uh…"
"…Yeah?"
"Um…he…and I…we both…"
"…Wouldn't hurt to hurry the hell up."
"We're together."
She said it so fast it was hard to catch, but to me her voice rang clearly in my ears. My eyes widened. I must've been looking at her weirdly, because she shifted away from me slightly.
"You're the one who asked."
"…What possessed him?"
She sighed. "He just…things happened, he told me how he felt and now here we are."
"And…"
"And what?"
"What have you done, 'together'?"
Her face immediately turned red. "N-nothing. I mean…it's not like we…"
"Had sex? Better not have. I'll kill him."
"I didn't know you were the protective type."
"Neither did I. Auria pointed it out," I huffed. "Anyways, he better not do anything you don't want."
"We both know he wouldn't do that. Besides…I'm pretty sure he doesn't have much intent to do anything to me physically."
"How much of your willpower did it take to say that?"
"All of it," her shoulders slumped while I laughed a bit. "Also…well, I told you that he reacted weirdly. It's as if he's distancing himself from me. I can understand that if it has to do with him turning, but this seemed different. Maybe he thinks that I was keeping this from him ever since I got here and I'm putting on an act for whatever reason."
"Seeing as how you were surprised, too, I think that'd be a little irrational," I huffed.
"I don't know…I just don't want things to change. Obviously this is something out of the ordinary, but if things have to change because of that, I'll just feel worse and worse."
"Don't break your head over it," I responded, ruffling up her hair a bit. She made a slight sound of protest but didn't stop me.
"Anyways…I'm a little tired. I'm going to take a nap." Getting the hint, I nodded and stood up, leaving the room without another word. Neither of us would be bothered by not saying goodbye, anyways.
It felt like everything she'd just told me had been a dream, like she was just telling me about weird things she'd seen while she slept. Chances were she'd probably prefer if they were a dream.
Minus the part about her and Ulquiorra apparently being together now. That part she definitely preferred to be real.
"Grimmjow?" Auria was standing outside of Alexia's room. I didn't know whether or not she'd been waiting the whole time since I went into her room, but seeing her there made me smile slightly.
"So…guess this is getting us a step closer to figuring out why we remembered our pasts while around her," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. The smile I harbored a moment ago was gone. Even if this helped us figure out another piece of the puzzle to our memories, it wasn't done in a peaceful or satisfactory way.
"What about Ulquiorra?" Auria asked, following me as I started walking away from Alexia's room.
"Doesn't seem like he took it too well," I put my hands in my pockets as I walked. "Lost some trust in Alexia even though none of this is her fault."
"He's still on guard around her, isn't he," murmured Auria, stepping a bit closer to me and putting her hand in mine.
"Yeah, but it's obvious why he has to be," I nodded a bit, brows furrowing slightly when I saw someone in the distance; the usual espada uniform and…pink. Szayelaporro. Of course.
"They're back?" Szayel stated more than asked as he walked up to us, glancing down at our hands briefly before looking back up again.
"Yeah…," I responded.
"I found something interesting," he continued. "You should come and look; you might notice something that I missed."
"I'm not in the mood to solve a riddle," I raised an eyebrow at him. Auria tugged at my arm a bit and I glanced over at her. She motioned with her eyes that she was going to head somewhere else and I nodded a bit, letting her leave silently while I turned back to Szayel. "So? What is it?"
"It's in my lab. Follow me," he said promptly and turned around, walking and expecting me to follow. It annoyed me slightly, but nevertheless I walked behind him. At least he didn't try to make pointless conversation as he led me into his lab and to a specific table. In the center of the white table was a small, rectangular box.
"Did you have to seal it off in a box because it's dangerous or something?" I asked casually, leaning against the nearest wall.
"Not necessarily. I would have just preferred if no one saw it until I wanted them to."
I raised an eyebrow at the way he said that. "Is it dangerous or not?"
"To some people," Szayel responded bluntly. "I was thinking it could be linked to Alexia."
That definitely got my attention. "How? She's already kind of going through a lot."
"I could sense their reiatsu as they came back; there was definitely something peculiar about them. Mind telling me what happened?" Since he said his question more like a statement, I figured he was just expecting me to tell him sooner or later. I sighed and started, telling him the information that I'd gotten from Alexia and the little bits I'd gotten from Ulquiorra (which was nearly nothing). Since there wasn't a reason to tell someone else what happened before, it was only now that I noticed that what Alexia had told me seemed partial, as if fragments of her memory were given and I was supposed to fill in the blanks. She hadn't said anything about why they'd stayed in the World of the Living for longer than usual or how she and Ulquiorra got together. Well, it wasn't like I was going to tell Szayel that they'd gotten together; it wasn't important (Alexia would've been glaring at me right now if she could read my mind).
"I see…," Szayel put a hand to his chin and nodded a bit, coming closer to the table and picking up the box. A few moments of silence passed while he opened it up and took out…a pair of glasses?
"Yeah…are needles supposed to sprout from them and stab you when you put them on?" I scoffed. "How is that dangerous?"
"At the time I found these," Szayel decided to ignore my comments and went on to his own explanation, "there had also been a strand of hair on them. I traced back the DNA and kept it on records. After Alexia appeared, I was surprised to find that they hair I'd found before was identical to hers. Of course, I checked her DNA as well and found that they were an exact match."
"So…Alexia wears glasses," I said cautiously, tilting my head slightly.
"I'm almost one hundred percent sure she at least owns a pair; for what reason, I wouldn't know, nor has she shown any signs of needing them."
"And this is bad because…?"
"I thought you would have been able to tell me what these were for."
"You don't know what glasses are for?"
"I meant what specific purpose they served Alexia," he turned and glared at me halfheartedly. "I'm wearing glasses, Grimmjow. I'd be worried about myself if I didn't know what they're for."
"I'm pretty sure they're just for show," I smirked at him. He shook his head and decided not to answer my taunts.
"Anyways, I'm going to give them to her. I'm not completely sure what kind of reaction she'll have, but I'm prepared for anything."
"Anything?" I retorted. "What's the worst thing that can happen by giving her a pair of glasses?"
He was silent for a few moments, in response to my questioning. Then, he walked around the room and checked a few things before turning around to face me. "If I'm not back in four minutes, feel free to come see Alexia and see how she's reacted."
"Four minutes?" I raised an eyebrow.
"That should be approximately how much time it takes for me to go to her room, give her the glasses, observe her reaction, and come back, don't you think?"
"Sure…"
Without another word, he was gone, leaving me alone with all his creations and specimens. Why wouldn't he know her reaction? I scoffed as I thought. They're just glasses…
Time passed by a lot slowly than it should have. Within what seemed like an eternity, I stood and stretched, sighing. It had to have been more than four minutes now, so there was no reason for me to stay. There wasn't a reason to be there in the first place now that I'd thought about it. I dismissed that thought as I walked over to her room. The door was closed, and since she'd said she was going to sleep, I made sure to be quiet as I entered the room; it was unnecessary, though. Szayel was standing in front of me as I opened the door and stepped in. He was silent, arms crossed.
"What…?" Szayel turned around and put a finger to his lips, signaling for me to be quiet. Although he should've known that there was nearly an absolute chance I wouldn't do that, he turned back around and kept staring silently. Closing the door behind me, I stepped around him and saw Alexia. She was still sitting at the same spot as before, but it was slightly different; she was definitely looking at something this time. In her hands were the glasses Szayel had shown me. They were simply put in her palms, as if set there for her to hold momentarily. What's she staring so intently for?
"Alexia?" I decided to call out to her after several moments of silence had passed. Szayel's shoulders stiffened visibly, a sign that either I had fucked up or he was overreacting.
Alexia was utterly silent. She seemed like a statue, not even blinking.
"Alexia."
"Grimmjow, stop that…!" Szayel turned to me, glaring, and I looked back at him; then we both froze as we heard a thump, then more silence. I turned back to Alexia first and saw her on the floor, her face shielded by her hair. The glasses previously in her hands were on the floor, too, next to one of her hands. I couldn't tell what had happened. But…it didn't look like she was conscious.
"Hey…!" I stepped forward but was stopped by Szayel, who blocked me with his arm. "What are you doing?" My eyes narrowed at him.
His brows were furrowed, but when he turned to face me, his expression was eerily calm. "It's begun."
[FOUR]
Me: It's time for a story :,D!
Alexia: (holds up a sign saying "A Trip Down Realization Avenue")
Me: S-shut up ._.
Unbr0ken: (clinging to Grimm) ;-; You kept me away from him for eleven months…
Me: (completely ignores him) Well…I went back and read the first chapter of Face the Facts…
Everyone: …
Unbr0ken: ;_;
Me: It's horrible ._. I think I need to rewrite a lot of stuff…(looks at Alexia) You have an unstable personality, to top it off.
Alexia: Says the person who made me -.-
Me: So in short I need to revise the first chapter to start since it's really bad :D
Grimm and Unbr0ken: When did you notice this?
Unbr0ken: (hoisted onto Grimmjow's back, playing with his hair) I missed your hair :3 so blue and spiky…
Me: W-why didn't you tell me earlier ;-;?!
Alexia: Tune in next time ^-^ and if you choose to review only helpful criticism is good criticism!
Song of the week(?): Nicotine by Panic! At The Disco